Elonka Dunin's Country List

This page contains a list of all of the known countries in the world,
and I have marked off those that I personally have traveled to so far.
As of May 2012, I've visited 65 to 105 countries.

Why such a wide range in counting them? Well, let me explain.
:) You see, there is a fair amount of debate as to what constitutes
a "country."

For example, you might count something as a country only if it belongs
to the United
Nations, in which case you'd amass a master list of about 192 member countries. Plus let's not forget the
non-members: the Vatican City, Taiwan, and Kosovo. Plus a few territories whose status is somewhat ambiguous: Antarctica, the Western Sahara, and the Palestinian territories. By United Nations rules of currently existing countries, I have visited 65.

Or you might expand the list to include anything that considers *itself*
a country, even if the United Nations and State Department do not necessarily
recognize it as such. For example, try going up to a Welshman or
Scot, and asking them if they're British!

Plus there are organizations such as the Traveler's
Century Club, which count pretty much anything as a country which is
distinctly separate, either politically, culturally, or geographically,
from another country. The Century Club is an organization that has
an interesting requirement for membership -- in order to apply, you must
be able to say that you have visited at least 100 countries! Their
rules of what "counts" as a country are pretty liberal though. For
example, by Century Club rules, even Hawaii and Alaska count as their own
countries! As of July 2011, the Century Club's master list counted
321 countable "countries" on our planet, of which I have visited 98, and per their "Country Status" Grandfather Clause, as of May 2012 I can claim credit for a total of 105, since I have visited some countries which are no longer in existence.

Then of course there's the discussion about how far you have to get into
a country for it to "count." For example, if you're just on a plane
that has made a refueling stop, but you never actually got off the plane,
does that count as you visiting that country? Or what if you're on
a boat that has entered a country's coastal waters, but you never made
landfall? Does that count?

Islands are especially tough. Some islands are listed as sovereign
areas, whereas some are listed as part of a larger chain.

A further monkey wrench is thrown in by the shifting borders on our
world. For example, many years ago West Germany and East Germany
were two entirely separate countries. I visited both of them.
But now they are (thankfully) reunified. In terms of counting countries
however, how does one proceed? Did I have credit for two, and now
I only have credit for one? Or did I have credit for two, and if
I re-visit the newly-unified Germany do I get credit for a third?
Or do I automatically have credit for the third since I have already set
foot upon the land that it occupies?

Yes, I know, to some of you who read this, these seem like trivial questions.
But to those of us in the hobby of "country collecting," we enjoy debating
the nuances, just as vehemently as a tennis player who's arguing with a
referee about whether or not that ball bounced *in* or *out* of bounds.
;)

So, here in this chart, I will try to indicate a complete list, and
a few ways of counting the countries upon it. The most liberal set
of rules is almost always that of the Century Club. They count pretty
much anything as a country, and all you have to do is be in it, even if
it's just on a plane or a boat making a refueling stop, to get credit.

More restrictive, are the "Dunin Rules". By our rules (and
these apply only to us, so feel free to ignore them), airports don't count,
and you have to actually set foot in a country (outside of customs) to
get credit for it. As for what counts as a country, we're somewhere
between the U.N. and Century Club rules. We don't count Hawaii
and Alaska, but if a place has its own money or its own stamps, we'll count
them. So that would include places like Wales and Scotland, which,
though technically part of the United Kingdom, do issue some of their own
money and stamps (with a thistle or griffon on them, signifying where they
came from). The Isle of Man is another one that counts, since it
issues its own stamps and currency. The Galapagos Islands, however,
despite their appealing remoteness, count only as Ecuador. Just as
Easter Island counts only as Chile.

Lastly, the Dunin Rules *do* allow for the counting of countries which
no longer exist. So in the above-cited example of the Germanies,
by Century Club Rules you would have only counted one country, the current
one, and it wouldn't matter that you had previously visited both West and
East Germany. But by Dunin Rules you would get three countries: Two
for the previous visit to both halves, plus one for re-visiting the new
unified Germany. As of 2012, by Dunin Rules, I have visited 89 countries.

So, without further ado, let us attempt to classify things. I
have listed countries by geographic region, along with checkmarks to indicate
if they "count" by Century Club, United Nations, or Dunin Rules, plus an
indication of whether or not I have visited that country by *any* ruleset.
The numbers next to each major heading show my "country count" for each
region.

NOTE: If you would like to copy this page for your own website,
and edit it to include your own counts on it, please feel free. I
ask only that you give credit to me and to the Traveler's
Century Club, and a link back to my site: http://elonka.com

Table Key:

Region - ## (the number indicates the countries
that I have visited in that region)

Century Club - # - An "x" in this column indicates that this country
currently "counts" as a country on the Century Club list. The # in the
column heading indicates the total of countries in this section (not the
number I've been to, just the number of countries that are countable).

United Nations - An"x" in this column indicates that this country
is a member country of the United Nations

Dunin Rules (#) - an "x" or "yes" in this box indicates that this
country "counts" for the "Dunin" ruleset (used by my family, and completely
ignorable by everyone else in the world). The number in parentheses
(#) indicates the "Dunin Rules count" for that region.

Visited - An "x" or "yes" in this box indicates that I (Elonka)
have visited this country, and that it "counted" by some ruleset, somewhere,
perhaps knownst only to me <grin>.

Notes - Will generally have either the date that I visited the country,
a mention of which larger country "owns" that dependency/region, or a hint
on where the particular country is located.

North America - 5

Country

Century Club - 6

United Nations

Dunin Rules (4)

Visited

Notes

Alaska

x

yes

26 Oct 1984

Canada

x

x

x

yes

Mexico

x

x

x

yes

Prince Edward Island

x

St. Pierre & Miquelon

x

x

yes

26 Sep 2002

United States

x

x

x

yes

Arrived newborn on 12/29/58 :)

Central America - 4

Country

Century Club - 8

United Nations

Dunin Rules (3)

Visited

Notes

Belize

x

x

yes

yes

22 Nov 2011

Costa Rica

x

x

yes

yes/no

27 Apr 89 - airport

El Salvador

x

x

yes

Guatemala

x

x

yes

yes

27 Apr 1989

Honduras

x

x

yes

yes

23 Nov 2011

Nicaragua

x

x

yes

Panama

x

x

yes

San Blas Islands

x

Panama

Caribbean - 8

Countries

Century Club - 30

U.N.

Dunin (7)

Visited

Notes

Anguilla

x

x

U.K.

Antigua

x

x

x

Aruba

x

x

Netherlands

Bahamas

x

x

x

yes

29 Dec 2008

Barbados

x

x

x

Bonaire

x

x

(Netherlands)

Cayman Islands

x

x

yes

March 1996 - U.K.

Cuba

x

x

x

Curacao

x

x

(Netherlands)

Dominica

x

x

x

Dominican Republic

x

x

x

Grenada

x

x

x

Guadeloupe

x

x

y/n

French . 1 Jan 2009, received Guadeloupe passport stamp in Collectivite de Saint-Martin